Various therapeutics have been devised to combat diseases, such as, infectious disease, cancer, allergy and autoimmune diseases. Such therapeutics include antibiotics, vaccines and other biological-based agents, such as protein binding moieties, including antibodies. Antibodies, in particular, have shown great potential in combatting various pathogens, cancer, allergy and autoimmune diseases. Against pathogens, however, pathogen resistance, commonly referred to as antigen escape, currently remains a challenge. Antibodies, by their inherent specificity for a particular epitope of an immunogen, play an effective role in elucidating which epitope(s) are well suited for designing a regimen to attack the disease, whether through an antibody-based prophylactic or therapeutic, or a vaccine-based prophylactic or therapeutic based on such epitope(s). Thus, there remains a need to efficiently identify an ideal protein binding moiety or group of protein binding moieties, such as an antibody, for the treatment of such diseases. Specifically, there remains a need to efficiently identify an ideal protein binding moiety or group of protein binding moieties, such as an antibody, that can withstand pathogen resistance. Further, there remains a need to efficiently identify relevant epitopes for the design of effective vaccines.
Once immunogens believed to have therapeutic relevance are identified, protein binding moieties specific for the immunogen can be selected by screening libraries of protein binding moieties against one or more of the immunogens. A problem arising after the initial selection process, however, is that a large number of binders, often hundreds are identified. Each protein binding moiety typically has some relative specificity for the immunogen, but it is not known which of the plurality of binders has therapeutic utility, such as, efficacy against disease. One option, would be to tediously test each individual protein binding moiety for a desired property, but this would be an expensive and time consuming task. Embodiments of the present invention provide solutions to this problem.
Further, once immunogens are identified, vaccines can be generated. A problem in identifying vaccines, however, is the efficient selection of suitable component epitopes of interest. Embodiments of the present invention provide a solution to this problem.
These and other needs are satisfied by the present invention.